„Are we there yet?“ is a ubiquitous question asked by children, which does not necessarily require a precise answer, but rather reassurance that the journey has meaning and a destination. In parenting, this question returns constantly, even if it is no longer spoken aloud. It inquires about time, rather than space, and changes its addressee: will we get there as parents? Will we become calm, balanced, and „completed“ adults, as our parents once imagined? At the same time, this question shifts towards society—as a hope that the environment in which parenthood simply happens will also mature. That society will evolve enough to enable safe, dignified, and legally recognized parenting even outside the norm of the traditional nuclear family: adoptive and foster parents, queer couples, forms of shared and communal care. „There“ is not understood as a specific place or state, but as a horizon that is further with each step forward.

It is said that Uncle Orakel knows the future. Supposedly, he can read it from fragments of architecture. Art Nouveau suits this purpose best — the old seer divines the tangled paths of the future from floral ornaments and from faces with lifeless eyes that gaze proudly at us from friezes and the capitals of pilasters. What exactly does he see in them?

Keyvan Paydar invites us to create concrete visions of the future and to work with them using a tool called Orakel. Within it, we can discover what future awaits us and share our own vision of what the world should look like in 5, 10, or 15 years.

Opening 18th of April